Earlier this month on the Terrific TV Toys series, you saw a brand-new Batgirl Hallmark ornament, one of a trio released this year celebrating the 1960s "Batman" live-action TV series. While this author was at the friendly neighborhood Hallmark store purchasing that lovely limited-edition gal, there was a nice assortment of other stuff on display for the TV nut, or perhaps the pop-culture nut in general. Let's look at a few photos, shall we ...
Will Rodgers, the author of "The Ultimate Super Friends Companion" (in Volume 1 and Volume 2!) has loved the "Super Friends" series since he was a kid, and he also is very fond of creating his own "SF" art, which he shares on social media. Here we take a look at some of the "SF" frivolity he's created lately ...
"I don't believe it! Defeated by a teenage tin man!". Lex Luthor. Seeds of Doom 1985.
"It's a shame," Will says, "that Lex Luthor had only a cameo appearance on the 'Super
Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.' The top drawing came from the premiere
episode. The bottom drawing I made wanting to see what Luthor would have
looked like with the power suit on. ... Yes, I know Firestorm
changed it into a prison uniform in 'No Honor Among Thieves,' but that was
SuperFriends, which was never big on continuity. So am I alone, or did
anybody else wish that Luthor could have worn his power suit? After all,
the power suit version of Lex is what Kenner had made and was marketing
at that time. Also, does anybody else wish that the 'Super Powers Team '
could have had more episodes and a longer season?"
"My customized title card for the SuperFriends lost season 1982-1983 complete with Batman's cowl error," Will says.
"My attempt at drawing the Luis Jose Garcia Lopez designs of the DC Super
Heroes in the style of the late Alex Toth. I call it The Super Powers
of the Super Friends."
Six Feet Under: The Odd Couple: Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. The Odd Couple premiered on September 24, 1970. It ran for five seasons on the ABC network, and was th...
A look at the life of "Star Trek"'s Leonard Nimoy, as well as his final resting place at Hillside Memorial Gardens, from blogger and author Brian Lombard ...
Six Feet Under: I Grok Spock!: Leonard Nimoy was born on March 26, 1931 in Boston. He was the son of Jewish immigrants who had fled their native Ukraine, resettling in ...
This time on Terrific non-TV Toys, we continue and conclude our special December cross-over event of Hallmark Christmas ornaments of a Batty theme. Earlier this month, you saw the brand-new for 2019 Batgirl ornament from the "Batman" '66 series. Now we turn to the Caped Crusader himself for, appropriately enough, an ornament titled just that. This one is from 2004 ...
Whether you were there and want to relive the moments, or just couldn't make it out to the event, check out the BRBTV video coverage of A Hazzard County Christmas at the Corunna United Methodist Church in Michigan this past weekend. We gave you some snapshots of the event yesterday, but now you can see Tom Wopat, longtime performing artist, Broadway star and Luke Duke of "The Dukes of Hazzard," in action for this special holiday concert.
It was a wonderful show. Wopat took a couple questions from the audience, relating how he first started singing and what were some of his earliest roles on the stage. Thanks to Pastor Steve Rau, as well as the church's own Pastor Steve, for hosting this event.
It was such a nice time with friends, and a wonderful mix of Christmas music and original songs by Tom Wopat, longtime performing artist, Broadway star and our own Luke Duke of "The Dukes of Hazzard." Wopat presented a thoroughly festive concert last night for "A Hazzard County Christmas" at the Corunna United Methodist Church in Corunna, Michigan.
This holiday event was hosted by two Pastor Steves -- one who's actually the pastor of this church, and the other who pastors another church locally and was marking his third "Dukes of Hazzard"-themed event with Wopat in the past 12 months. In fact, the Luke Duke of his childhood is becoming quite a friend to this avid "Dukes" fan, Steve Rau, so much so that he's rather determined to make Shiawassee County into Hazzard County. And hey, this author will go with that; I dreamed of living in Hazzard when I was a kid growing up in this area. I've been joking on this blog (see the coverage from last year's Christmas concert, as well as the summer racetrack concert) about how Michigan seems to be becoming "Hazzard North," with these wonderful events popping up from Pastor Steve.
And just like last year's Christmas concert, fans were treated to a more-intimate setting for this event. We "Dukes" fans know that typical events can draw thousands, and you might be waiting in line a long time to get that photo or diecast car signed by a cast member. Here, though, the church pews were pretty full, but as Wopat signed items for fans at his table in the great hall before and after the concert, you had nice access and lots of time with this Duke cousin.
Wopat brought a couple different 8-by-10 photos with him -- one with his "Dukes" co-star John Schneider, and another of just himself with the General Lee -- along with two albums, a recent Christmas CD he cut with Schneider and the "Wopat" release.
Replicas of the General Lee and Hazzard County Sheriff's car were on hand again for this event, brought by Brian and T.J., as well as a yellow Road Runner like Daisy drove early on in the series, a monster truck and a Blues Brothers-inspired car.
They came from near and far to enjoy this concert; one fan drove eight hours from eastern Ontario, and another came from a block away! Thanks so much, Mr. Tom Wopat, as well as both Pastor Steves and everyone else who helped put this event together.
If it's the last episode of the calendar year, it has to be a Christmas episode, right? That's kinda how we roll here at BRBTV. And we're doing a cross-over event this month, with Hallmark ornaments of a beautifully Batty variety on both Terrific TV Toys and Terrific non-TV Toys.
This week, she's brand-new, fresh off the shelves this year at your friendly neighborhood Hallmark shop. This author waited in line, even. (It was totally fun; I'd do it again!) It's the Yvonne Craig Batgirl of the Adam West "Batman" series of the 1960s. She's got her purple sparkly outfit on, all ready to kick the tail of the bad guys this Christmas season. Or at least to save your Christmas tree from any villains or other miscreants. And she's got a partner, too -- you'll be seeing him on non-T3 in a week or two ...
The selection was so robust this past weekend at the annual toy show at the Kalamazoo, Michigan, fairgrounds that this author spent the whole morning texting photos of goodies to this person and that person. "Have you seen this?" "Do you want this?" Buddies Mike, Brian and Rob, my Bro -- there was just something for everyone this time around at this amazing and huge show that happens every Saturday after Thanksgiving. I always look forward to it. And I kept the economy alive, believe-you-me, between the purchases I made here and at the mall later that afternoon! Gotta love it. Anyway, here's the customary glance-in-pictures of what they had ...
Some of this stuff you'll see on future episodes of the BRBTV YouTube series Terrific TV Toys and Terrific non-TV Toys (and a couple items you've seen on past episodes). One particular item I now officially regret leaving behind (there's always something) because it represents one of my past places of employment. We've got Mego, Corgi, Ideal, other manufacturers represented here, a nice diverse assortment ...
Sometimes a great discovery can come from a mistake. Is that the case this time? Well, you wouldn't exactly call this Nexu figure a great discovery, per se. But we'll make the most of it, now won't we.
This Nexu figure was snagged at the Star Wars Celebration event in Florida a few years ago, while this author was on the hunt for a figure of another "Star Wars" creature. Can you guess which one I was actually looking for? You'll find out in the latest episode of Terrific non-TV Toys ...
A couple months ago, you saw on the Terrific TV Toys series a set of Hot Wheels cars celebrating the 50th anniversary of the original "Star Trek" series. Well, now, behold, another set of "Star Trek" Hot Wheels that actually dates a couple years earlier, featuring the same six characters of the original show but with different makes and models of vehicles ...
Something really amazing just happened, and I am so excited I have to blog about it. Forgive me as this writer turns totally geeky. (OK, geeky is my default mode, really, but ...) I was doing a workout on the treadmill downstairs, and lightning struck for a second time, and I was flabbergasted. I was looking down at my name on the page of an Archie Comic from 2000. And I had no idea it was there. Wow.
Let me back up a bit. Back in 1999, I had the occasion to meet someone I really looked up to. I was helping my friend Rob cover the Mid-Ohio-Con in Columbus, Ohio, for his Comics Continuum website. (The con was called that back then, at least -- it's since been rebranded.) Mr. Dan DeCarlo, longtime Archie Comics artist and a great talent in the comics world, was there along with his sweet and beautiful wife Josette. They did quite a few shows like this, bringing along the original black-and-white art from his comic book covers and inside pages over the years. He would typically offer an original cover for $75, inside pages maybe for a little less.
From that meeting, and a phone conversation, came a story I wrote for the Comic Buyer's Guide publication (a hard-copy pub, back then, chockful of great comics-related news). I really admired Mr. DeCarlo's work for Archie -- had seen it all my life, since I was a wee girl reading Archies, and I had come to know his signature look for Betty and Veronica. I jokingly referred to him as the Versace of Archie Comics because he always made them look so sexy, but never trashy. Always classy in a sense, for teenage girls, you know? But so feminine and beautiful. Mr. DeCarlo was truly a legend. And he was so cordial and kind to me, when we spoke. I purchased one of his original Archie covers for my brother, who is a big Archies fan, as well, who even named his daughter after Veronica Lodge. And Mr. DeCarlo gave me an additional piece of art that he signed just for me:
I had told Mr. DeCarlo how his character of Cheryl Blossom was my very favorite Archie Comics character, since she was the redhead and all. Cheryl had only come along at Archie a few years before, in the 1980s-1990s. So we'd talked a little about that, as well as the Josie character, another one he developed for Archie over the years, and whom he, of course, had based upon his wife.
So my story on Mr. DeCarlo story hit CBG in February 2000:
At the time, I was living in downtown Detroit and working at The Detroit News. I was a subscriber to the Cheryl Blossom title of Archie, since I intended to collect every appearance of the character. (For you millennials, that meant the paper copy of the comic actually arrived in the postal mail!) When I got the comic issues, I would put them on a stack in my apartment for reading in the workout room downstairs. One morning that summer or fall of 2000, I unsuspectingly grabbed the top couple issues off the stack to go downstairs and do my workout. While I was huffing and puffing on the stairstepper, I just about had a heart attack. There, staring me in the face from the cover of Cheryl Blossom No. 34, was my own name written right on the boogie board Cheryl was carrying:
Oh, my word, Mr. DeCarlo!!!!! I just about blew a gasket. Wow. I was so excited and honored, that this talented cover artist snuck my name onto that issue as a little "hello."
Unfortunately, Mr. DeCarlo passed away about a year later, leaving behind such a wonderful legacy -- more than 40 years with Archie Comics alone, as well as other work over the years. But to so many, he has always been the defining look for Betty and Veronica. After a while had passed, I decided to call Josette to see if perhaps she might have the original of that amazing Cheryl Blossom No. 34. She was still attending cons to promote his work. She looked for the original cover, and alas, it was not to be found. I am still on the hunt for it, but I have bought up several copies of the regular comic from comic shops and the Internet over the years.
So now we'll flash-forward to the present year, 2019. My love for Archie Comics has never waned, and as a part of a YouTube series I do on collectibles, Terrific non-TV Toys (a spinoff of Terrific TV Toys, LOL), I did a couple episodes on a set of Betty and Veronica fashion dolls released back in 2000 by Playing Mantis. I had kept them in their boxes over the years, not quite sure how to display them, and probably not really having the room to display them among all of my other collectibles anyway. But I decided now was the time to open them, on camera, for the series. Each one of the three Betty dolls in the set had a regular full-sized Betty comic book included in the box.
So I literally opened each one on camera, loved and admired it a bit for the episode, then threw the comics themselves onto a stack for -- you guessed it -- when I did my workouts. Now I am living in a house, so my workout room is in the basement downstairs. For the three comics that came with the Betty dolls, along with the ones on the Veronica dolls, I was pretty sure I didn't already own them. I have always had a lot of Archie Comics, but these issues, from the same year the dolls were released, 2000, didn't look familiar to me. Great, I thought, some new reading for future workouts.
So then ... there I am ... a few days ago, doing my huffy-puffy workout on the treadmill, and I am paging through Betty issue No. 89. There's a page of fashions for Betty ...
I absentmindedly scan the page. Oh, that's fun, I think. Great 2000-era fashions ... I glance at the bottom, where it credits the reader who sent in the fashion ideas ...
And there's my name again!!!! This time, it's my full name, though! All three names!!!! And not far above it on the page, the name of that wonderful Archie Comics artist, Dan DeCarlo! I could not believe it. I just about cried. I stared and stared at it, as if it would go away or something. As if I couldn't afford to believe I was actually seeing my full name printed in a comic book that had been sealed away in a doll box for 19 years ...
Now, you understand, of course, I have the kind of name you don't see very often. Because that's the first thing I thought, right? That maybe there was another Billie Rae Bates out there, in this case in Columbus, Ohio??? And she (or he!!!) was the one who'd actually sent in the ideas for this page of fashions. No, it couldn't be. The only other person I have known of with my full name was the pro-basketball star of the '70s, and he spelled his name with "y"s. No, I knew this was Mr. DeCarlo's doing. Sort of his sly little joke. After all these years, wow.
As I thought about it, flabbergasted as I was, and I sent photos of the Betty comic to my brother, I realized that Columbus, Ohio, was where I had first met Mr. DeCarlo in person, at that Mid-Ohio-Con all those years ago, and perhaps he assumed I was actually from that local area!
Or maybe he just put that city down, rather than my real city of Detroit, as our little joke! Whatever the reason, I am beyond words ... Seeing that, again on a workout machine (as weird as that is), after all these years (!!!) ... It was like a sweet message from a sweet friend, crossing the boundaries of time and existence.
Sadly, Josette has also since passed away. That was in 2012. The couple had two sons, and they also worked for Archie Comics, but they died even before Mr. DeCarlo did. Even the Comic Buyer's Guide publication is no more. So much has changed since that first year of the new millennium. Bummer.
